Sunday-School Success: A Book of Practical Methods for Sunday-School Teachers and OfficersWells, Amos R. (Amos Russel)
Religion
Sunday-School Success: A Book of Practical Methods for Sunday-School Teachers and Officers
Wells, Amos R. (Amos Russel)
Sunday schools
Many booksellers will send books on approval. The review columns in
the religious papers should be regularly watched. The committee should
be placed on the mailing-lists of all the best publishers, to receive
their regular announcements of books. They should get into
correspondence with the librarians of other schools, learning from
them what books are popular and helpful. And, above everything else,
they should get in contact with the scholars of their own school, to
watch the practical effect of the books they select.
Regarding the selection of books, first, some "dont's."
Don't choose any volume, no matter how famous, without reading every
word of it. One of the grandest of biographies, for instance, is
Franklin's autobiography; but you will not wish to put before young
readers his chapter on his religion--or lack of it. Wonderfully
inspiring essays are Emerson's; but here and there a sentence speaks
of Christ as a mere man. A very stimulating booklet is "Blessed be
Drudgery"; but one sentence spoils it for our use, since it places
Jesus at the end of a list of philosophers at whose head stands
Herbert Spencer.
Don't buy "fads." Wait and see whether the book now so much lauded is
heard of next year.
Don't buy the books that have fittingly been called
"a-little-child-shall-lead-them" stories. Bill Nye described them as
tales relating how a dear little boy, though but five and a half and
crippled, took in back stairs to scrub, and supported his widowed
mother, and sent his sister to college.
Don't buy "libraries." As sensibly let a man that has never seen you
order for you a suit of clothes.
Don't buy "sets" and "series" and "sequels." Judge every book on its
merits.
Don't buy the books of one publishing-house alone, however excellent,
any more than you would fill your home with the works of only one
painter.
Don't confine your choice merely to the "Sunday-school writers." Books
that are not virile enough to attract and help folks outside the
Sunday-school are not likely to prove very useful inside.
Don't buy by authors. "Aunt Mary's Candlestick," by Jemima Jones, may
have been the greatest success of the year in your school; but that is
no reason why you should load up with "Aunt Mary's Dust-brush" and
"Aunt Mary's Needlecase" and "Aunt Mary's Dish-mop," by the same
industrious author.
In fine, don't buy any book, no matter who is its publisher or author,
or what its reputation, unless that particular book meets some
particular need of your particular school.
And now, what shall we buy? Stories, of course, in delightful measure.
The Sunday-school library has the highest authority for teaching in
parables. And for these stories there are three requirements.
First, they must be attractive. What is the use of a book if it will
not be read?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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